Slaughtering your own game hens can save you money over buying the birds at the grocery store.
Chickens are basically raised for two purposes: egg production or meat. Meat chickens are sold as broilers, roasters and game hens. Although the name suggests a wild bird, game hens are hybrid domestic chickens. It is a young chicken that weighs two pounds or less and is slaughtered when it is five to six weeks old. In addition to the Cornish game hen, there is also a rock Cornish game hen, which is a crossbreed of rock hens and Cornish game hens. You'll know what a chicken was fed and eliminate additives if you slaughter your own game hens. Add this to my Recipe Box.
Instructions
Killing the Bird
1. Kill the hen using your choice of method, which vary in humane quality. Common methods include chopping, sticking and neck dislocation.
2. Hold the hen by its legs and tail, with its wings tucked in and its neck flat on a chopping block; as its legs are lifted, its natural instinct is to lift its beak back and straighten the neck. Swing the hatchet down on its neck in one swift, hard chop to remove the hen's neck.
3. Hold the bird upside down in an open-ended cone, pierce a long, sharp knife through the roof of its mouth into the skull, and then twist the knife. Slit the chicken's throat on both sides to let the blood drain.
4. Hold the hen's legs in one hand and the head in the other hand. In one quick motion, pull up on the hind legs, push down the head and twist it up toward you to dislocate the neck; you will hear a click as the neck is dislocated.
5. Hold onto the legs tightly with each killing method because the hens will flutter for a few minutes reflexively. Let go of the bird and you'll find yourself literally chasing a chicken with its head cut off if you kill with a hatchet.
6. Hold or hang the hen upside down over a bucket to allow the blood to drain from the neck; holding it down in the bucket prevents blood spatter on your clothing while the bird flutters. If the neck dislocation method is used, the blood will drain into the neck and no bucket is required.
Cleaning the Bird
7. Dip the chicken into a large pot of boiling hot water a few times and then immediately pluck the feathers from the body. Start pulling the feathers from above the feet or wing tips and work your way to the hen's body.
8. Cut off the chicken's head if it wasn't removed with the killing method. The piercing and neck dislocation methods leave the head intact during scalding.
9. Cut a shallow hole from the bottom of the neck to the top of the breastbone; pull the skin out while cutting to avoid cutting open the crop. Chickens don't have teeth and instead grind food in a crop, which is located just inside the bird's chest, attached to the esophagus.
10. Expand the opening with your fingers, cut the windpipe below the crop and then pull the crop out.
11. Cut a small, shallow circle around the anus and open the hole to reveal the intestines; stretch the hole until you can reach your hands inside. Carefully pull out the intestines to avoid rupturing the bowels. Pull out everything up to the breast bone and discard in a bucket.
12. Cut off the neck and cut off the feet just above the point where the feet meet the legs.
Tags: game hens, Cornish game, neck dislocation, blood drain, feathers from, Hold legs, killing method